This morning saw the release of the latest RAJAR radio audience listening data.
Cue lots of press releases from lots of radio stations (You can read about Absolute Radio’s audience here).
I suspect that many industry watchers will be looking at the digital listening percentage. That shows that 21.1% of all radio listening is being done via a digital platform, up from 17.9% in the equivalent period last year.
But the overall level of listening to radio remains remarkably strong. I admit that I’ve been concerned about radio listening remaining over 1bn hours a week – it’s a psychological thing. But listening hasn’t fallen below that level. It’s actually grown recently – remarkable when you consider all the calls we have on our time.

And overall listening is now at a record high, with 46.3m people listening weekly.

“Ah!” you might say, “Surely that’s because the population is increasing?”
Well the population is increasing, but the percentage reach – the number of people listening each week to at least some radio as a percentage of total population – continues to rise.
It’s now at 90.3% – well up on a year ago, and a great overall number.

A powerful message from a powerful medium.
Here endeth the sermon on why radio is great.